Out of the Shadows
by WastingYourGum
Summary: One shot. Takes place in Nottingham's dungeons during 1x11. Alice Little wonders who her son's new friend is...


**A/N: **Written for the Little John community as part of the Intercomm 2010 Challenge on LiveJournal**. **Reviews will, as ever, be very much appreciated (but I guess if I really wanted them I'd write about Guy, Robin and Marian!)

**Characters**: Little Little John, Alice, Little John  
**Mentions**: Will, Robin, Guy, Sheriff Vaizey

**Disclaimer**: BBC & Tiger Aspect own anything you find familiar.

* * *

"Come on..."

Alice watches Little John hold out his hand as if trying to coax an animal from hiding.

If the man from the forest he described months ago is indeed real then that's most likely what he is - an animal; scared, feral, unused to company and above all dangerous, with all the same potential to bite the hand that feeds him. Alice had assumed Little John had imagined the encounter - he'd only been outside without her for a moment and she'd seen no-one. To have it confirmed as real makes her stomach clench in fear for what might have happened.

The dim light from the torches barely touches the cell in the corner and the brooding presence there is felt more than seen. Only his hands and his nose and chin are discernible above the bare wood of the pillory around his neck as he presses himself back against the furthest away wall.

Little John has already been talking to him so why should _her _presence make him suddenly shy?

John said the man from the forest had claimed to know her. Most likely a lie to gain a child's confidence but he had not harmed John at all, nor asked for anything. John had reassured her the man had never even touched him, had not got within ten feet of touching him, "like he couldn't leave the trees". When she casts her mind back Alice also realises that it was shortly after Little John's "imaginary friend" made his appearance that some very real and welcome gifts of food had appeared at their door. At the same time the rumours had spread of Robin Hood's generosity to his people but Alice knew she had never met the young Lord Locksley so which of his men had decided to show her favour? And more importantly why? For her sake? For the boy's? And with what motive?

At the time she'd thought it may be Will Scarlett - she always suspected he had carried a bit of a torch for her in his younger years - but Little John would have recognised Will in a heartbeat. Besides, he had said the man from the forest was older, with a big beard and broad shouldered - as far removed from the slender, young carpenter only just growing into his facial hair as she could think of.

So how does this man know her and just as importantly, does she know him? Someone from before Locksley perhaps? There is no one from her past life she can think of that she would wish to meet and especially not in these circumstances.

The heavy metal bars surrounding them are suddenly an unexpected comfort. Alice studies their strength and thickness and they give her confidence to indulge her curiosity. She steps forward to stand protectively beside her son as he softly encourages his "friend" to come out from the darkness.

The man hesitantly steps forward and a thin beam of light is cast across his face.

She can see now how tall he is; taller than Will, taller than most men, maybe even taller than Gisborne. His skin is weathered and his thick scruffy beard and wild unruly hair are speckled with white so he is indeed older. He must have been lying. This man doesn't know her, nor she him.

That look though...so intense and from such dark eyes. Only one man ever looked at her like that and from such a height, but he is long dead... isn't he?

She mentally strips away the years - and the beard - and suddenly that same man is impossibly and _infuriatingly _standing in front of her...

~~~O~~~

"Come on..." The boy holds out that small perfect hand that had felt so right in his, with no clue what it is he's really encouraging his "friend" to do.

Lurking has never been easy, not for someone two yards high. John curses the wooden boards around his neck - he'd be a good three inches further back into the darkness without them. Outlaws aren't afraid of the dark - it's light that scares them. Others are afraid of the dark because of the monsters it hides. Monsters like him.

He's avoided Locksley like a plague pit since that first day Robin had swapped himself for Alice's tongue. Will would always give him a report each time he dropped off food and to hear they were safe was enough. Seeing them himself was too risky and too painful. Even from far across the village the sight of her body and the triggered physical memory of it next to his was an unbearable ache.

Now she's mere feet away and looking right at him, trying to pick him out of the shadows. God, she's still so beautiful! His wife had always been the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen but the mother of his child is as far above him as an angel, especially now he has fallen so low.

And the boy... _his _boy, _their _boy. He can see her face in his so clearly. He has her eyes and those same delicate features he was always so afraid to touch. But John can see himself in there as well - brief flashes when the future taunts him with glimpses of the man his son will grow into.

He knows better than to hope her face will light up when his is illuminated. It will fall and twist with hate and disbelief at his deception. There won't be joy at his resurrection, only anger and pain - but what can he do? He can't stand there in the darkness forever. They'll all be dragged out for the Sheriff's "Festival of Pain" in the morning and she'll see him then for sure. At least if he reveals himself now her reaction will be for their eyes and ears only and not the guards' amusement and Vaizey's possible profit.

And then his son will know who and what he truly is. Will he still hold out his hand then? Still call him "friend"?

John takes one last moment to commit the image to memory; his family, reaching out to him, unafraid and not judging, wanting to know him. A lie - but one he will treasure anyway.

He braces himself and makes the unfamiliar move out of the shadows and into the light... and the expected axe does not immediately fall.

Maybe she won't recognise him? Maybe it's been too long and she's forgotten him. Maybe...

A gasp. "You're _alive_..."

Maybe all his worst fears didn't even come close...


End file.
